There is more wrong at Manchester United than the egos of Sir Alex Ferguson and his principal striker grating against each other. Squandering points after taking a lead away from home is one thing; doing it within the confines of their own fortress is quite another.

Ferguson had spent the international break in the United States and had been granted a tour of the White House. His decision to drop Wayne Rooney in the wake of the striker's criticisms of his non-selection at Sunderland and Valencia demonstrated that the United manager understands the use of naked power as well as any American president.

However, even in the Oval Office they understand there are limits to the ability of any individual to control events and when Edwin van der Sar dropped a straightforward cross in a game that the West Bromwich Albion manager, Roberto Di Matteo, described as "an afternoon of gifts", it allowed Somen Tchoyi to wipe out what had been a two-goal lead at half time.

The great stadium immediately began howling for a man who had protested that an ankle injury should not have prevented him playing in United's previous two matches and who had suffered the consequences of rebellion.

Rooney's touches in the 18 minutes he was allowed did not merit the standing ovation he was granted by Old Trafford and his one shot, after Scott Carson had inexplicably picked up a back-pass, thudded against the mass of bodies West Bromwich had massed by the goal-line.

Ferguson has not commented publicly about Rooney's omission and, perhaps tactfully, he was not asked by the club's in-house television station, MUTV, although the frustration seeped out of every other answer he gave. "This is not a defining result but we cannot keep doing this," he reflected. "We have had five draws and there are two ways of looking at that. A team in the middle of the league could claim they are undefeated but for Manchester United it is not good enough."

He reeled off the games in which United had dropped points and if David Moyes or Mark Hughes might have disagreed that Everton and Fulham should have lost by "five or six" or "three or four" respectively, on neither occasion did Manchester United take their chances. In his programme notes Ferguson said he was relieved that Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand were back together in the heart of United's defence, adding there "was no substitute for experience".

Van der Sar will celebrate his 40th birthday this month and made his debut for Ajax as long ago as 1988. Ferguson said that the last time he would have dropped a cross as innocuous as Chris Brunt's would have been "at primary school". Like almost everyone else at Old Trafford he found West Brom's first goal difficult to describe: a scudding free-kick that went through at least two pairs of legs. Tchoyi, who had begun his European career with a less travelled path from Union Douala in Cameroon to Odd Grenland in Norway, was judged to have had the final touch.

Ferguson, who suffered the loss of Ryan Giggs with a recurrence of a hamstring injury he suffered in another 2-2 draw, at Bolton, said his players had not "killed West Brom off". But this is a side that does not die easily. Di Matteo commented afterwards that: "My job is to remove the [yo-yo] reputation of this club, game by game." They had not won at Old Trafford since December 1978, when West Brom were defined by Ron Atkinson and Cyrille Regis, but under Di Matteo they had beaten Arsenal and run Liverpool close at Anfield. Had Brunt not screwed a shot wide from point-blank range, the recovery would have begun before the second half.

And yet, as Rooney settled deeper into his seat, everything at Old Trafford appeared to be marching to Ferguson's timetable. During England's long tours of Australia, they would occasionally pluck up the courage to rest Geoffrey Boycott for the odd state game and the greatest living Yorkshireman would stare from the pavilion grinding his teeth and accusing his replacements of "stealing my runs".

Rooney has not scored from open play for Manchester United since their 2-1 defeat to Bayern Munich in March but as he watched Nani, Javier Hernández and Dimitar Berbatov slicing patterns through the West Bromwich defence, he must have thought they were stealing his goals.

The goals flowed early. There were barely five minutes gone when the first of Di Matteo's "gifts" was handed out. Scott Carson could only parry a free-kick from Nani with his forearm and Hernández reacted quickest to score his first Premier League goal. Then Nani pounced on a slip from Nicky Shorey, exchanged passes with Berbatov, and drove his shot home in front of the Stretford End. The cameras flashed to Rooney who seemed an incidental figure and this he was to remain, although not in the way either he or Ferguson might have imagined.

THE FANS' PLAYER RATINGS AND VERDICT

TONY KAYE, Observer reader Disappointing for us but West Brom deserved the draw and I wouldn't be surprised if they were challenging for a Europa place. Di Matteo has got West Brom sorted and playing good football. I wouldn't be surprised if top clubs were looking at him. I was impressed with Hernández, who is proving to be a bargain buy. He and Berbatov worked well together in the first half. I'm a Van der Sar fan but he was at fault for their second and we should replace him this season or next season, looking forward. Our defence went to bits for 10 minutes in the second half. Rooney failed to ignite when he came on.

TERRY WILLS, Baggies@yahoogroups.com The supporters are ecstatic! At the end of the game the scenes from the terraces summed it up as there were only Albion fans left and United's supporters were long gone. We were two goals down after 25 minutes and it looked like it was going to be another disaster, just like at Chelsea. However, Albion continue to play attractive football and as long as it was only two we were in with a chance. What a transformation in the second half! United's defence made mistakes, as had Albion's in the first 45 minutes. In truth, I don't think even the United fans could begrudge us the point.